Why then? Because that's the deadline for candidates to file to run for office in Maryland this year.

Leopold's near desperate Hail Mary to get his conviction overturned has more to do with his inability to run for office than it does with his disagreement with the conviction or any public embarrassment that he was outed for his boorish behavior. John Leopold, after all, was a career politician. He has run for office in every election cycle since 1968. It's all that he has ever known, and for whatever sad reason, he feels like he has to be on the ballot in order to feel complete.

None of Leopold's posturing now should be a surprise. Leopold was barely out of jail when he made it apparent that he would not take the hint and go away by going on the offensive against his replacement Laura Neuman.

--Brian Griffiths is a co-founder and contributing editor for Red Maryland, which has strived to be the premier blog and radio network of conservative and Republican politics and ideas in the free state since 2007. He is chairman of the Maryland Young Republicans. and has worked on and advised numerous local, state and federal campaigns. His Red Maryland posts appear here regularly.